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Stanford University

From University Innovation

Stanford University is one of the world's leading research universities. Stanford is known for its entrepreneurial character, drawn from the legacy of its founders, Jane and Leland Stanford, and its relationship to Silicon Valley. Research and teaching emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving. Areas of excellence range from the humanities to social sciences to engineering and the sciences. Stanford is located in California's Bay Area, one of the most intellectually dynamic and culturally diverse areas of the nation.

Stanford was ranked the #1 College in the United States by Forbes in 2013, in part for its role in the development of Silicon Valley and its prominent tech companies and innovators. Stanford is currently ranked (July 2014) at #2, after Williams College.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is the entrepreneurship center at Stanford University's School of Engineering. Hosted by the department of Management Science and Engineering, STVP is dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship education and creating scholarly research on technology-based firms that, in turn, provides new insights for students, scholars, and business leaders.

STVP provides undergraduate and graduate students from all majors with the entrepreneurial skills needed to use innovations to solve major world problems, with an emphasis on the environment, human health, information technology, and other global issues. Our research efforts tackle the challenges of creating successful ventures and innovative large firms, and then taking that knowledge to the classroom and publication. Our global outreach program includes annual conferences on several continents and a website that includes thousands of video clips and podcast regarding technology entrepreneurship and innovation. We strive to create new ideas, and inspire and prepare students to be leaders in existing organizations, new ventures, and academia.

As a single point of contact for entrepreneurship at Stanford, the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN) is a federation of over two dozen entrepreneurship-related campus organizations that conduct research, teach courses and/or provide outreach services.

SEN also serves as a forum for communication and collaboration among its member organizations. Many of Stanford's student clubs focus on entrepreneurship, and unique entrepreneurship-related programs exist in nearly every school, including Engineering, Business, Medicine, and Law, as well as in university-wide organizations such as the Office of Technology Licensing and the Office of Corporate Relations.

The Stanford Entrepreneurship Network hosts the following programs:

Educational and networking events for the entrepreneurship community

An annual Entrepreneurship Week celebration at Stanford University

"Coaches-on-Call" office hours that allow students to meet with industry professionals

The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES) at Stanford Graduate School of Business is building a dynamic global community of entrepreneurs and thought leaders who are changing the world. This is accomplished with resources including:

Support for ground-breaking research and education that advances entrepreneurial thinking

Connects, enables, and inspires Stanford students and alumni to create and scale innovative new ventures

Creates a hub for the interests and pursuits of the entrepreneurial community - faculty, students, alumni, practitioners, and investors.

Advising, networking opportunities, signature programs, and other targeted resources are available for GSB students and alumni. We also provide students and alumni access to additional resources, including reprints of recent articles, sample business plans, and other literature, which are available in the office. In addition, the GSB library offers venture capital databases, company information, entrepreneurial text and course books, and more.

The website for CES at Stanford Graduate School of Business can be found here.

Center for Social Innovation

The Center for Social Innovation at Stanford Graduate School of Business cultivates leaders to solve the world's toughest social and environmental problems. It provides resources and programs to help MBA students, alumni, faculty, and field practitioners raise awareness, build relevant skills, and advance action. CSI participants lead corporate efforts to improve ethical and sustainable practices, manage nonprofits through strategic growth, and launch social enterprises that bring life-changing solutions such as loans to small businesses and safe lighting to the world's poorest places. Programs include:

The website for CSI at Stanford Graduate School of Business can be found here.

StartX:

StartX is an educational non-profit that accelerates the development of Stanford's top entrepreneurs through experiential education and collective intelligence. StartX requires no fees and takes zero equity. Its community is home to Stanford's top entrepreneurs in a wide range of industries including consumer IT, medical and hardware, raising over $200M with a 1.8M average per company funding rate from leading investors such as Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and Venrock. StartX has $100,000 in resources from its partners, as well as free office space and legal services. It also provides mentorship from over 200 serial entrepreneurs, experts, angels and VCs, including individuals from Palantir, LinkedIn, Google, Twitter and many more in Silicon Valley. StartX focuses on education through customized programming and on-demand experts delivered when founders need it.

Stanford Startup Weekend is an annual weekend innovation event affiliated with the national Startup Weekend initiative. Over one hundred of Stanford's entrepreneurs apply individually for a 54-hour marathon weekend of ideating, problem solving, and pitching to top venture capitalists. Entrepreneurs come from the schools of Engineering, Law, Sciences, Medicine, Education and Business.

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011. All Startup Weekend events follow the same model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it's a frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The weekend culminates with presentations in front of the judges with another opportunity for critical feedback.

​The Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES) is at the heart of student entrepreneurship at Stanford, as one of the most established and well-known student-run entrepreneurship organizations in the world. Our mission is to promote entrepreneurship education at Stanford University and to empower the next generation of brilliant entrepreneurs. We work with budding entrepreneurs, exceptional students, and prominent professors and investors in order to unite the worlds of entrepreneurship, academia, and industry. Our programs include the 150K Challenge, the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders' Seminar, the SVI Hackspace, E-Bootcamp, and the Freshman Battalion.

​Stanford Women in Business (SWIB) addresses the issues preventing more women from pursuing business careers in the Stanford undergraduate community by: providing business resources, hosting educational events, and maintaining a strong network of professional women. SWIB strongly believes that establishing a long lasting community serving all women on the Stanford campus will naturally prepare them with skills for a successful career in any industry. Through mentorship, events, and networking opportunities with alumni, recruiters, and industry professionals, SWIB serves as the launching pad for the future leaders of the business world.

SWIB is also a general business resource to the entire Stanford community. Throughout the year, SWIB provides career workshops and industry panels for all Stanford students. As the group matures with age and leadership, the vision will remain the same, but the innovation, scope, and impact of SWIB will only continue to grow.

The Asia Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society at Stanford (ASES) aims to foster a dynamic workplace and community that is open-minded to introduce things never seen before. It looks to connect like-minded people looking to make the world a better place by fostering community and implementing solutions. Its members are interested in seeing entrepreneurship in action. Every year, ASES at Stanford holds its ASES Summit event, a conference for the next generation of top international entrepreneurs.

The Society for Entrepreneurship in Latin America (SELA) is an international organization of students founded at Stanford University to establish a network of entrepreneurial students throughout Latin America and the United States. SELA is primarily aimed at forging bonds between students, professionals and academics interested in Latin America in order to promote development and encourage investment in the region. SELA is building chapters at universities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and El Salvador, while seeking partnership with other U.S. universities. It hopes to ultimately reach every country in the Americas to facilitate mentoring, conferences, networking, and education based on entrepreneurship in different regions.

The GSB Entrepreneur Club is one of the oldest student-run entrepreneur's clubs in the nation. The current incarnation of the club has its roots in the late 1970s, when many of the individual student initiatives around small businesses and entrepreneurialism coalesced into a single student-led club. In 1993, the e-club under the leadership of Ken Hawk sponsored the first E-Conference on Entrepreneurship, with 150 people attending the day-long event. The conference has since grown to be the largest annual conference dedicated to entrepreneurship in the world. Today the Entrepreneur Club is the most active student-run club within the GSB community. We have over 300 members and last year the club organized more than 50 events for over 1,100 attendants. The goal of the current GSB Entrepreneur Club is to stimulate interest in entrepreneurialism among GSB students and other members of the Stanford community. Its members are passionate about building sustainable ventures and maximizing success in ventures. The club promotes an entrepreneurial mind-set both as a founder or manager of a start-up and in the roles of investor, advisor, or corporate partner.

Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies

SEED was formed to bridge a critical gap in global efforts to address prosperity around the world. Despite impressive progress achieved through the Millennial Development Goals, it is estimated that by 2015, there will still be more than 1 billion people on earth living in poverty. SEED's ambitious goal is to transform the lives of people living in poverty on a massive scale. Its approach is to leverage Stanford's resources and culture of entrepreneurship and innovation and work with local and global thought leaders and practitioners to catalyze positive change that will reach all citizens of a given region. The SEED mission is to stimulate the creation of economic opportunities through innovation, entrepreneurship, and the growth of businesses that change the lives of people who live in poverty around the world.

Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) is dedicated to the understanding and practice of the nexus of innovation and entrepreneurship in the leading regions around the world. Current research focuses on Silicon Valley and high technology regions across Asia, including in China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. SPRIE fulfilles its mission through interdisciplinary and international collaborative research, seminars and conferences, publications and briefings for industry and government leaders.

Conclusion

Stanford University has a breadth of entrepreneurial resources available to students, faculty and affiliates. For more information about any of these programs, please visit their websites via the links provided or Stanford's main website here.